


Something's Rotten in the State of Arendelle… and I'm It, Help!

by barbara_princess_of_delphi



Series: Unique and Unusual Frozen Prompts/Headcanons: The Collection (non-AU) [2]
Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: "Ultimate Headcanon", F/F, F/M, Gen, Multi, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-09
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2018-02-12 10:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2106090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barbara_princess_of_delphi/pseuds/barbara_princess_of_delphi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>King Adgar and Queen Idunn took their one darkest secret to the grave with them.</p><p>They, themselves, were brother and sister. Their love so deep and true as to become forbidden, unnatural. And so their first-born daughter was cursed with ice magic in order to bring tragedy upon them. For their happy family was founded upon an abomination, an unnatural union that Heaven could not accept.</p><p>So Adgar and Idunn paid the price for their love: thirteen years of a parent's worst anguish, followed by a drowning in the open sea.</p><p>Except now, it seems Elsa has inherited her parents' penchant for inappropriate feelings…</p><p>Story based on "The Ultimate Headcanon" submission to the elsannaheadcanons blog</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

High in the surrounding mountains, the trolls sensed Elsa coming long before she arrived, for several inches of snow had accumulated by the time her voice rang through the valley.

“Grand Pabbie? It’s me, Elsa! I need your help!”

Dawn was approaching, which meant bedtime for the trolls, but this was important, and so they waited in a great circle, leaving a path open for the winded, frantically rushing queen as she walked rapidly, out of breath, to reach Pabbie waiting in the center. 

“There’s something wrong with me,” she said, gasping. “Please help me…”

Grand Pabbie reached out to take Elsa’s hand with his own stubbly one. “Now, now, calm down, Your Majesty… we shall take good care of you… but first, breathe deeply, and tell what has happened?”

Pabbie held out his stubbly hand and tried to calm down the winded queen. At length, she managed to settle down enough to speak.

“My powers, they’re acting up again… I was doing so well, but the last few weeks, it just—“

Elsa choked back a sob, as frost crept over the ground and icicles grew in every direction.

“I can’t lose her again, Pabbie. I can’t…”

Pabbie almost reached out to put a comforting hand on Elsa’s knee but caught himself at the last moment, remembering that she would probably flinch. Two icy tear streams were growing down her cheeks and Pabbie noticed a few icicles poking at his belly, their growth impeded by his rock form.

“Queen Elsa. Queen Elsa!” He spoke louder to get her attention. “Think of a happy memory. Remember when you were a child, when you made snowmen with your sister… yes, that’s good… feel the joy…”

The icicles that had sprouted up all around stopped growing and the tips began to melt. 

“Now, my queen,” Pabbie offered a hand, this time Elsa accepted it, “something has frightened you of late, for your magic to be expressed so powerfully without your intent. What might that be, hmm?”

Pabbie and Elsa had both learned the lessons from her coronation “incident” two years prior; he knew, and knew that she knew, that fear caused her freezing powers to be released uncontrollably while love allowed her to control her abilities and undo bits of her magic at will. Two years ago, Elsa was able to use her love for Anna to remove the ice and snow released by her fears during the coronation. Since then, Anna and Kristoff had visited the trolls numerous times, and from them Pabbie knew that Elsa’s powers had been quite well controlled for the past two years. Elsa had gotten over her fears of accidentally hurting people. What, then, caused her to fear once again? 

“I don’t know!” Elsa cried in desperation. “It’s just, when Anna comes nearby, I can’t seem to control my powers anymore… and then she notices, and keeps pestering me to tell her what’s bothering me, and that just makes it worse… last night I barely got away from her and into my room before the ice exploded out of me… I almost hit her again!”

The icicles began to grow once again, as Elsa relived her fears from the previous night.

“It used to be when my powers flared up, I could just think of Anna and it would go away. But the last few months, it hasn’t been working…”

Pabbie had his suspicions, but held them back until he could confirm them with further probing. “Love is the antidote to your magic, my queen. Think of your love for your sister, feel it in your heart, and now try…”

But his words only made Elsa sniffle more and the icicles poke harder into the troll king’s round stomach. And he had his answer.

“That’s the problem,” Elsa said, quietly. “I love her… too much.”

The entire crowd of trolls surrounding them audibly blinked twice in unison, confused and shocked expressions on their faces. Almost simultaneously, every troll in the audience turned to look at a neighbor, as if searching for comprehension.

“But that doesn’t make any sense!” a younger troll burst out. “How can anyone ever have ‘too much’ love for someone else?”

“Yeah! The more the merrier, right?”

In spite of her predicament, and her fears, Elsa couldn’t help but smile fondly at the trolls’ naiveté towards human morals. The trolls did not experience carnal lust as a feeling separate from love, and so they were genuinely confused by the notion that it could be wrong for Elsa to feel such desire for her beloved younger sister. 

Only the few trolls with knowledge of human ways understood the gravity of the situation. Grand Pabbie became stony-faced (even more than always, that is) as he looked into Elsa’s mind and saw the frightening visions that powered the magical snowstorm around her. All of Arendelle in flames, angry mobs rioting in the streets; herself and Anna strung up on crucifixes in the town square, burning alive for their sin. Kristoff watching from a distance, still loving Anna with all that he was, heartbroken at the betrayal of both sisters. The armies of Weselton and her allies dismantling every house in Arendelle, enriching themselves with the spoils of a righteous crusade against the monstrous witch queen.

The freezing winds howled around them, though the trolls fortunately were not very sensitive to either cold or heat.

“Please, Grand Pabbie, I don’t want to feel like this anymore…”

“That may be a great deal to ask, my Queen… the heart is not so easily changed…”

Hearing those same words, in the same voice, Elsa was suddenly disoriented, finding herself 8 years old again, watching the old troll save her sister’s life…

“Very good, Elsa…” as quickly as it had come, the flashback vanished and Elsa was once again full-sized and kneeling in front of Pabbie – “I see you still remember,” he acknowledged, with a great deal of regret. The tragic day when Pabbie had accidentally frightened Elsa into her decade-long isolation through his own lack of knowledge still haunted both of them, and though they had since forgiven each other, it was still a great regret for the old troll. He was not surprised that her memory of that day remained so sharp.

“The love that you must draw upon to save your kingdom is a strange and powerful force. Strange, is it not, that you have come to me out of true love for your sister – to protect her, and our Kristoff as well, at the sacrifice of yourself – and yet, your powers are not appeased by such a selfless act of love.”

“I know!” Elsa wailed, her head hung in shame as fresh tears trailed down her face, freezing on the way. “I’m a monster! Can’t you – do something to my head or – something – make me forget, or –“

“I fear persuasion may not be the answer this time, my Queen,” Grand Pabbie spoke over the winds, “When I removed the ice from your sister’s head, remember, her love for you was unchanged…”

The sun was almost fully risen over the horizon and many of the younger trolls had started to nod off, but those who could were still listening in rapt attention. The wind howled louder.

“Thirty years ago,” Pabbie mused out loud, “your parents came to me in the dead of night… tell me, Queen Elsa, did your parents ever tell you about how they came to be?”

Elsa paused for a moment, puzzled at the unexpected change of topic. Come to think of it, her parents never did talk much about their early lives…

“No, they didn’t…” she answered. “What does that have to do with…”

Pabbie sighed, he had expected as much – Elsa’s parents had hoped their secret would die with them, for they knew Pabbie would never tell – but fate had decreed otherwise.

“Queen Elsa, the time has come… for you to know the truth of your origins…”

\--- Flashback ---

Two young blonde teenagers arrived in the Valley of the Living Rock in the dead of night. Crickets chirped in the cool air of a Norwegian summer... 

“Grand Pabbie! I am Prince Adgar of Arendelle and this is my sister, Princess Ida… we are here to beg your assistance.”

The round rocks flared to life around them.

“Pabbie, Pabbie!”

“The prince and princess are here!”

After a few minutes of excited chattering, the sea of trolls parted and Pabbie rolled to a stop at the royals’ feet. The two humans kneeled in the grass to match his height.

“Prince Adgar! Princess Ida! How may we be of service to the children of Arendelle?”

The two siblings shared a look.

“We need your mind magic.”

Adgar spoke rapidly, impatiently; Pabbie spoke slowly, sagely, as typical of beings his age.

“There are many types of mind magic, young one. What is it that you desire?”

Both siblings blushed beet red at that last word.

“We… um… we love each other and we need you to… make us only love each other as brother and sister, not as…” (the boy couldn’t quite spit out the last word, so the girl gently supplied it for him) “…lovers…”

A beat.

“Hmm,” Pabbie nodded thoughtfully, “this does not seem to be a matter for mind magic… There is a saying about these magics, ‘the heart is not so easily changed, but the head can be persuaded’ – but in such matters of the heart we have little recourse, I fear.”

Adgar and Ida both looked so crestfallen…

“Please, Grand Pabbie,” the prince begged, “we have a duty to marry for our kingdom. I must have an heir, my sister must obtain a favorable alliance. But we just can’t bring ourselves to say those vows to anyone else because of these feelings we have for each other. We need you to take away these feelings so we can fulfill our duties.”

“Very well, my dear prince and princess,” Pabbie said, reaching out his hands, “come here, a moment.”

The teenagers shifted forward so that Pabbie could reach out to place a cool stony hand on each of their foreheads.

“As you can see,” Pabbie explained, “this is now the second time you have come to me with the same request. A year ago I removed your memories of all your unwanted feelings, but now you have rediscovered on your own what I helped you to forget… …I therefore find it more prudent to reverse my previous memory spell rather than cast another one which would be equally fruitless and only delay the inevitable… so that you may decide your next course of action while fully informed…”

Upon coming out of their trance, the two teenagers gasped in shock and then stared at each other in mixed horror and wanting…

“But what shall we do, Grand Pabbie?” cried the boy, Adgar. “We cannot marry each other. We cannot marry anyone else, in this state. What shall become of Arendelle without heirs?”

The girl, Ida, took a deep breath. “Grand Pabbie,” she said, almost too quietly to be heard, “we are both trying really hard not to jump each other right this second. If you don’t help us… we are going to do something really stupid and ruin the whole kingdom. We both know it, and we can’t help ourselves. You were our only hope…” Another deep breath. Voice trembling. “…Isn’t there anything you can do?”

“Hmm.” Grand Pabbie thought for a while. “Not unless you are willing to be separated for a long time…”

Adgar’s voice trembled as he asked, “How long?”

“Most of your remaining time in this world, if not all of it.”

Adgar and Ida turned to each other and shared a look.

“All we wanted was to be brother and sister again,” lamented Adgar, “like we were as children, before… before this… If we can’t be that anymore, then – “ his voice choked up with emotion – “It was nice knowing you, Grand Pabbie. Thank you for your help.”

“Thank you,” echoed Ida, who also had tears streaming down her face. But Grand Pabbie recognized the glint of resolve in both of their eyes, hidden behind the tears. Both teenagers had evidently accepted their inevitable star-crossed end and had decided to face it together – however soon it might be. Pabbie knew that if he allowed the couple to leave, they would indeed fall into their passions and proceed heedless of the consequences, and all would suffer. His help would be risky, but it was their best chance of survival. Trolls may be made of stone, but their hearts are of gold.

“Prince Adgar! Princess Ida!”

The departing royals turned, hearing Pabbie call for them.

“There is one way… if you wish to remain together for all time… It is not without risk, but – “

“What do we need to do?” As before, Adgar spoke for both of them, but his determination was mirrored in her expression.

“One of you must die.”

Momentary shock gave way to understanding as the siblings realized the troll king was referring to a figurative, rather than literal, death.

“I’ll die,” volunteered Ida, “Adgar would have more say in choosing his suitor, so we would have the better chance that way.”

“Very well,” Pabbie said. On cue, an apprentice troll handed him a mushroom. Pabbie tapped his stick and began a chant, summoning up a rainbow-colored vapor, which slowly vanished into the mushroom, tinting it green. He offered the finished spell to the princess, who took it and put it in her satchel.

“This is the classic Sleeping Beauty enchantment,” Pabbie explained to Ida. “Upon ingestion of the spell, you will appear dead until revived by a true love’s kiss. You must be warned, however – should anything happen to Prince Adgar before he is able to administer the true love’s kiss, it is possible that any arbitrary male being, human or not, could potentially revive you and become a competing true love. There is also the danger that no one will revive you, and that you will remain enchanted permanently, unable to live, yet unable to die and move on to the next world.”

Pabbie turned to Adgar. “After your sister has used the spell, you must arrange her funeral suitably. After enough time has passed to avoid suspicion, you must bring your sister back to us, in secret. We shall assist her in taking on a new identity. When the time is right, she will be presented to you as a princess from a foreign kingdom. If you still love her then, you will have no trouble recognizing her. You must be patient, however, as it may be many years before another identity becomes available for her to take.”

“Finally,” Pabbie addressed both siblings, “you are well aware that even should you succeed, there are those who would disapprove of your union solely because of your blood relation. We trolls believe that true love supersedes all natural laws, but some legends, some practitioners, would claim that your love is a perversion, and that should you consummate it, the heavens would curse you to a lifetime of suffering. Or perhaps it is they who will curse you, appointing themselves both judge and executioner on behalf of their own deity’s will. We cannot say for sure, for we are trolls and not men; only you know what your own heart tells you on this matter.”

“Thank you, thank you,” the young royals both leaned down to kiss Pabbie’s hands, tears still streaming down their faces, but these were tears of joy and gratitude, rather than resignation.

Four months later…

The prince and his newly revived princess tearfully embraced one final time. Finally, Adgar heaved himself back onto his horse and returned to his rightful place in Arendelle, to begin the long wait for his true love.

After the prince and his mount had vanished into the darkness, Grand Pabbie turned to the princess. “Now, my dear child… what is your name?”

Princess Ida turned to the old troll with a confused look. Pabbie clarified, with a twinkle in his eye. “Princess Ida is deceased, my dear.” And then she understood. He was allowing her to choose her new identity – since she could no longer use her own name, at least in public, she must have a new one.

The reborn princess kneeled to be level with her savior, smiling slightly, and said earnestly…

“Call me Idunn, your majesty.”

(In case anyone overheard Adgar still calling her “Ida” after they were wed, they could plausibly claim it was just a nickname.) 

Four years later…

In the lightening pre-dawn sky, a sea of trolls crowded around a tall (by comparison) human figure. “Goodbye Idunn!” “Goodbye your highness!” The once-blonde but now brown-haired girl at the center of the commotion went slowly, acknowledging each of her troll friends in turn with hugs and kisses, and then stopped to kneel before Grand Pabbie and kissed his stony feet. “Grand Pabbie,” she said, “whatever you once owed to my family, you’ve repaid ten times over… you’ve saved Arendelle.”

“Princess Idunn,” replied the old troll, “we were pleased to have you among us, no need to worry. It is always our delight to help those who encounter an obstacle while following their hearts. And if you find further difficulties on your path, or indeed if your path among men must come to an end, you and your love will always be welcome here in the Valley of the Living Rock.”

“It pains my heart so much that we can’t even tell our children how you helped us,” the princess said, “but Adgar and I can’t thank you enough, and we’ll make sure our royal house remembers you… even if they can’t know what for… and,” she blinked back tears, “if I didn’t have Adgar waiting for me back there, I’d stay here, you know. I’ll miss you, Pabbie.”

And thus Princess Idunn of Bothnia, formerly known as Princess Ida of Arendelle, left her second family, the trolls, to return to her first family, the prince waiting for her in the castle of her birth.

Ten years later…

The next time Pabbie saw them, Adgar and Idunn were older, but Elsa recognized them, and herself in tow, as they returned frantically with their shivering five-year-old daughter bundled up: this was the night Elsa’s childhood had ended.

Pabbie ended the vision at this point, well aware that Elsa knew the rest of the story from that point on.

\--- End flashback ---

When they came back to the present, the entire valley was inches-deep in snow and lines of icicles were spreading in all directions from a stock-still Elsa, doubled over in almost physical pain from the gut punch of Pabbie’s revelation. Everything she thought she knew about her parents had been a lie. Her own father, King Adgar, who taught her to be queen, who still watched over her from his portrait on the wall… Elsa had been a good girl for her father for the last twenty years – and this was the man she’d been trying to live up to?

“I’m going to be sick,” Elsa croaked, before dry-heaving in the snow in front of her.  Nothing came out. She’d skipped dinner in her haste to sneak out of the castle earlier that evening. But knowing what her parents had done – and how she had been conceived – it was just too much.

And then a horrifying realization struck her.

The ice powers. Her parents had been devastatingly right, and Anna had been just as devastatingly wrong: they were a curse after all.

It wasn’t just Elsa and her sister who suffered for thirteen years because of her unnatural abilities. Their parents had been just as crushed, watching them grow apart, being forced by fear to continue keeping the daughters separated.

All of them were being punished for the terrible sin of Elsa’s parents. The world never found out, and would never find out, that a brother and sister had defiled the throne of Arendelle and conceived two children upon it in violation of every divine and natural law. But God sees what is hidden from all mortal eyes. Adgar and Idunn had escaped the judgment of man, but not the judgment of God.

From such vile acts of love are monsters conceived, and now, Elsa has realized that’s exactly what she is. A spawn of the Devil, disguised to the outside world as a beautiful woman with a beautiful gift.

Elsa crumpled up in despair, just as she had two years ago on the fjord after Hans’s terrible words. At that moment, the howling blizzard around them suddenly paused in mid-air and the snowflakes fell windlessly, clearing the air all around them and bringing the surrounding circle of trolls – and the early morning sunrise on the horizon – back into view. Many of the trolls had nodded off, and with thick coats of fresh snow on their bodies, resembled so many giant snowballs; a few of the older ones were barely awake, eyes blinking and stubby hands sticking out from under the snow that had accumulated on them.

“Queen Elsa?” Pabbie asked gently, giving her some warning before he moved to touch her shoulder. “You cannot be held responsible for any of this, my queen. You were not even born when all this happened, hmm?”

Elsa sobbed quietly into the snow and icicles and Pabbie held her for a while as the disc of the sun rose fully over the horizon.

“Why?” Elsa pleaded brokenly. “Why, Pabbie? … why did I have to know…”

“This is the nature of love, my dear queen. It does not listen to reason and its power is beyond any magic we know. Though we cannot end your love for your sister, we may possibly be able to appease it by means like those used by your father and mother… but only if your sister feels the same way. Do you know her feelings on the subject?”

“She doesn’t… she can’t… she’s happy with Kristoff and, I won’t take that away from them…”

“That may be, but in order to determine the best solution for your problem we must speak to your sister and find out her feelings. It would be best if you could have her come here, or I can go to Arendelle with you tomorrow night.”

Elsa looked very worried for a while and finally said, “I’ll send Anna with Kristoff as soon as I get back… but please, don’t tell them how I feel?” Elsa knew there were only two ways Anna could react if she found out: she’d either be repulsed and never want to see Elsa again, or she would do anything to make Elsa happy including sacrificing her own happy future with Kristoff. Elsa didn’t know which result she was more afraid of. Fortunately, Pabbie understood all this implicitly.

“Of course, your majesty.” Pabbie yawned a great yawn. “Do rest a while before you begin your journey home, surely you must be tired,” at those words Elsa suddenly felt overcome by exhaustion – her adrenaline-fueled overnight hike from Arendelle all the way up into the mountains finally catching up with her. In her previous panic and preoccupation she hadn’t even noticed, but now she was struggling to stay upright. She barely heard Pabbie’s next words, “If you awaken before us and find yourself hungry for the journey home, please help yourself to the mushrooms on our backs. In any case, we shall see you soon, hmm?”

Pabbie yawned again while his stubby limbs began to shorten, said “good day, Queen Elsa” and then closed his eyes and promptly turned to stone as the morning light illuminated the valley.

Tired and overwhelmed from the events of the last 24 hours, Elsa stretched out on the snow next to Pabbie, conjured a dome of ice around herself thick enough to block out the sun, and fell into a deep sleep.

The Valley of the Living Rock looked like a winter wonderland later that day when Anna stepped out of Kristoff’s sled just before sunset and stomped towards the intimidatingly spiked igloo in the middle with a pickaxe in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is based on one of my submissions to elsannaheadcanons.tumblr.com, which was dubbed "The Ultimate Headcanon" by some followers (they called it that, not me!):
> 
> \----  
> Elsa’s parents took their one darkest secret to the grave with them. They, themselves, are brother and sister, their love so strong and true that it conquered every obstacle and allowed them to hide their secret from the world – but not from the heavens. As punishment for their un-natural union, their firstborn (Elsa) was cursed, leading to years of suffering by their entire family.
> 
> (Elsa's parents could not have pulled off their marriage without outside help. They went to the trolls, begging Pabbie to make their feelings go away. But he could not, because "the heart is not so easily changed," and instead helped them to get married - by faking the sister's death and allowing her to pose as a wealthy foreign princess, whom the brother would then "choose" as his bride.)
> 
> But it turns out there was a perfectly natural cause after all: Nature herself sometimes makes mistakes. Due to a fluke germ-line mutation in Elsa’s grandmother, both of Elsa’s parents were biologically insensitive to the Westermarck effect, and as a result, experienced non-normative “genetic sexual attraction” wherein their close sibling bond and shared traits (from genetic similarity) only increased their unconscious desire for each other as perfect mates. Elsa and Anna inherit this mutation (since both their parents have it), and as a result, are similarly irresistibly drawn to each other – though they never know the true reason, as modern biology doesn’t exist in their time.
> 
> (original link: http://elsannaheadcanons.tumblr.com/post/81774543541/elsas-parents-took-their-one-darkest-secret-to-the
> 
> \----
> 
> P.S. Why didn't Elsa conjure a snowman to carry her up the mountain instead of running/walking all night to get to the troll valley, you may ask? It's simple: she was so panicked about almost hitting Anna with her magic earlier that night that she didn't even think of that option. And even if she did, she wouldn't have dared to cast anything given her complete lack of control at the moment she fled from the castle (and all the way up to the trolls).


	2. Chapter 2

At first, Elsa’s exhaustion was such that it kept her nightmares at bay, and for once she did not dream of Anna crucified and burning at the stake, nor stabbed by icicles. But as the day passed, and her physical body recovered from the rest, the revelations of the last night filled her mind and she tossed and turned fitfully within her ice dome.

She watched, revolted and yet unable to turn away, as her parents kissed in Pabbie’s memory. And then, her mind conjured up images, the truth of her childhood that she had never known until now. She saw the castle from above, looking down upon her teenaged self huddled in her room surrounded by her cursed ice – only now, she could also see her parents just down the hall, doing unspeakable things to each other in the royal bedroom, at the exact same time she tossed and turned in her frozen-solid bedsheets back in her own room. And then, in the next room over, she looked down upon the younger form of her sister, crying herself to sleep, crying out for Elsa, who could not answer – trapped in the curse their own parents had brought down upon them.

And then, Elsa was looking down from above at another of her own memories. Her ten-year-old self sat on her bed, despondent, as her father tried to cheer her up. “Why was I cursed with this power?” she asked, complaining to no one in particular. “There are some things that no one knows, Elsa,” consoled the father, as he held his young daughter for one of the last times in her life – before her ice would grow so strong that she became afraid to touch him. And now Elsa, floating above, saw in her father’s eyes (or so she imagined) what she had not seen at age 10: her father knew, even though he pretended otherwise. He knew exactly why she was cursed. It was only the tip of an entire iceberg that he had kept from her – and would have kept from her forever. Elsa was certain of this, for she would’ve done the same in his position… after all, it was he who taught her how to be queen…

But the worst part of the nightmare wasn’t even from Elsa’s own memories; it was from something Elsa had found out much later, after the Great Thaw. After re-living her own childhood in a sickening new light, Elsa found her mind dredging up one final scene.

Twelve-year-old Anna was bedridden, with her leg in a cast, after crashing her bicycle down the stairs into a suit of armor. Elsa had learned about the accident from Gerda shortly after, and promptly wrote a get-well card for Anna. But what Elsa never knew at the time – and what her parents never told her – was that when they went to Anna’s room that evening, bringing Elsa’s card in person, that was when Anna had broken down and confessed to crashing the bike on purpose – hoping that Elsa would finally come to see her if she was hurt badly enough. Again, Elsa watched herself, 15 years old, asking if Anna had gotten her card, and King Adgar replying that she had appreciated the card very much.

While the 15-year-old Elsa was slightly relieved, the present-day Elsa felt her blood boiling. She knew her anger was irrational and largely unjustified. Her father had tried to protect both her and Anna in every way, emotionally as well as physically, exactly as she was doing now. Had Elsa now stood in her father’s place, in the doorway to 15-year-old Elsa’s bedroom, knowing only what he had, she wouldn’t have told her younger self the truth about Anna’s reaction to her card, either. Yet still she felt an unaccountable rage, knowing that her parents were the true cause of Anna’s 13 lonely years. 

But just as she was about to reach down from her floating perch into the dream vision and strangle her father with her own hands – something stopped her. A gentle hand of cool stone rested comfortingly on Elsa’s shoulder. She turned from her visions, at last, to see Pabbie beside her.

“Does… does anyone else know?” Elsa’s voice was trembling too, and she realized with disgust that she sounded exactly like her mother did at her age. 

“No, your majesty.” 

Elsa glanced worriedly at the trolls surrounding them. Pabbie understood.

“We shall not allow anyone to condemn you when you have committed no wrong,” he reassured her. “None shall know.”

For one instant Elsa began to feel relieved, before a familiar voice rang out from somewhere above her and instantly replaced her relief with panic.

“None shall know _what_?” 

Anna towered over the two monarchs, hands on her hips, heartstoppingly beautiful in the glowing rays of the just-risen sun as she glowered at her sister from above. Behind her, a trail of broken icicles wound through the mostly dormant and snow-covered trolls surrounding them into the distance. They were all asleep, and with Pabbie and Elsa otherwise occupied, no one had noticed Anna approaching.

In a blind panic, Elsa scrambled backwards away from her sister, more icicles rising on the ground between them. Anna brought out the pickaxe she had been holding behind her back and hacked away, easily catching up to Elsa.

“No more secrets!” Anna yelled, in tears, “Elsa, you _promised_!” Elsa froze for just a moment at the reminder and Anna caught up to her, kneeling in front of her in the snow. “I don’t care how horrible you think it is, Elsa… please let me in,”

“I – but – “ Elsa sputtered, still reeling from the sickening implications of what Pabbie just showed her, and she lacked any will to protest when Pabbie gently moved between the two sisters and took each of their hands in his. “Queen Elsa, may I?” Elsa understood he was asking for permission to share what he had just shown her, and would have refused if she had time to collect her wits, but overwhelmed at the moment she was too drained to do more than nod once. Pabbie turned to Anna. “Princess Anna,” he said gently, “please excuse your sister for a moment, she is still coming to terms with something she has just learned…”

“Is this what’s been bothering her?” That was all Anna cared about.

“No, your highness, but it may well be the source of that which is… I warn you, however, this is not a pleasant thing for you to know,” Pabbie gestured to Elsa by way of illustration.

“No! Anna, please, don’t!” Elsa screamed in desperation, knowing this revelation would destroy them forever. Her precious little Anna was about to discover the terrible truth about her own origins, and she’d never be the same. If Anna knew what their parents had done, she would surely put two and two together and realize the true nature of Elsa’s love for her. Even worse, she might think such a thing was actually okay. This could only end with both of them dead or worse.

With those thoughts, Elsa bolted awake in panic, almost hitting her head on the roof of her ice dome. 

Finally realizing it was all just a dream, Elsa managed to calm herself just enough to stop gasping for air and remember where she was. It seemed she would have to bring Anna back to the trolls once again, which meant she would have to go home and face her sister one more time. Drawing upon her royal sense of responsibility, Elsa resisted the temptation to stay put and hide forever, and raised her hand to crack open her ice barrier…

…and then she stilled, hearing muffled voices through the ice. Even before she recognized them, the voices set her heart pounding all over again, somehow she just knew. One of them sounded like Pabbie…

The girl’s voice spoke again, and Elsa knew that voice no matter how many layers of ice were distorting it.

Of course Anna was going to follow her here. She’d been foolish to think she could keep Anna away for any length of time with merely a note on her door leaving Anna in charge of the whole kingdom’s emergency plan.

Shaking in trepidation, Elsa pressed her ear to the ice and tried to listen to the words from the other side.

* * *

 

_A few minutes earlier…_

Narrowing her eyes at the spiked igloo that could only be hiding Elsa inside it, Anna grabbed Kristoff’s pickaxe and stomped forward. Very quickly the crash of the icicles shattering from Anna’s enraged swings began to wake up the trolls sleeping in the snow, and the round rocks began to stir.

“Princess Anna!” Pabbie’s voice made Anna pause in her attack on the ice dome and turn to the sound of the voice, slightly sheepish about forgetting to greet her fiance’s family. “A pleasure to see you again,” the old troll said, bowing in welcome.

“Grand Pabbie!” she greeted, dropping to one knee. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up! I totally forgot you were here…”

“Princess Anna, you must be here for your sister?”

“Yes! Something’s been bothering her and she won’t tell me what it is. Do you know? She’s been hiding this thing since last winter, whatever this is, and we’ve all been so worried about her but you know how she is, and last night I finally couldn’t take it anymore and we had an argument and she slammed the door again and then she just took off and foisted all her duties on me and…” Anna talked so fast she only now stopped to take a breath, “and here we are. Please, Grand Pabbie, did she tell you what’s going on? She promised after last time she’d stop keeping secrets from me, I can’t take this anymore!”

“Princess Anna,” said Pabbie gently, “please excuse your sister for a moment, she is still coming to terms with something she has just learned… and she requires rest at the moment. You and your sister have some things to discuss, afterwards. May I inquire, however, what are your feelings towards your sister?”

“Um, I love her, what else is there to it? I mean, she makes me really mad sometimes, like now, but…”

“There are many types of love, my dear princess.” At Anna’s questioning look, Pabbie continued, “There is the love of a parent for a child, and there is the love between brother and sister, and then between husband and wife…”

“Uh…”

“You love Kristoff, and you love Elsa; are these the same?”

“…I guess not? I, well, I’ve never really thought about it… I mean, Elsa’s so pretty and sometimes I want to kiss her but Papa said you can’t do that with sisters because it’s a sin and we’d both go to hell forever, and it’s this really scary place where they burn you alive and stuff, but um, I guess… yeah, I love ‘em both but I guess I’m only allowed to marry Kristoff because he’s a man and he’s not my brother, so…” 

“Hmm,” Pabbie thought for a moment, realizing Elsa’s problem might be bigger than any of them had first realized. “How long are you able to stay here, your highness? I’m afraid we cannot proceed any further until your sister has recovered, so it may be best if you can remain here until then.”

“I told the council to keep everyone indoors for a week,” Anna said. “What’s bothering Elsa anyways?”

“I must warn you, Princess Anna, this is not a pleasant thing for you to know,” Pabbie gestured to Elsa by way of illustration. “Are you—“

“Yes, I’m sure, now out with it!”

Pabbie held back a chuckle when Anna emphasized her words with a petulant stomp in the snow.

“Very well, my princess, look into my eyes…” 

Pabbie proceeded to show Anna the same memories of her parents, which had left Elsa nearly catatonic earlier that very day. 

“Whoa, is that mom and dad!?” Anna asked in wonder.

“Wow, he’s hot! I mean…” promptly realizing how inappropriate she’d just sounded, she clapped a hand over her mouth, not for the first time in her life. 

“They did THAT!?”

“Wait, you’re telling me Mom and Dad did—“

The vision ended leaving Anna and Pabbie again facing each other in the snow.

“—Dad, you bastard! Not you, Grand Pabbie, I was yelling at him! Where’d he go? I can’t believe…” Anna went from yelling to muttering angrily as she realized the object of her ire was no longer in front of her. “’You can’t marry your sister’ he says, when he totally knows it’s possible, what a load of…”

“Your highness,” Pabbie rumbled gently as he touched Anna’s knee, “what was possible for your parents, at great personal risk, was only possible because they were a brother and a sister…”

“But—“ Anna started to protest only to halt as understanding set in. Visibly deflated, she almost seemed to wilt into the snow before Pabbie’s eyes. “…oh.”

Anna’s parents were allowed to be together only because they were capable of producing an heir. But Anna would never be able to have biological children with Elsa. So they would never be allowed to follow in their parents’ footsteps.

Unless… 

“Pabbie, can you turn me into a boy?”

Pabbie closed his eyes solemnly, opened them again, and said, “For a very short time, we could disguise you as one. But not in the sense you ask, unfortunately. We could dress you as a man, and teach you to speak and act as one… but we cannot give you the ability to impregnate another woman…” 

“Of course not…” Anna sighed, and silence fell over the darkening valley.

Then suddenly Anna’s face lit up with another inspired idea. “Wait, what if you guys found another kid like the way you found Kristoff and we could adopt him or something? I could pretend to be the father and we could…”

“My dear princess,” Pabbie rumbled, “where would we find such an orphan? Remote as we are from the places of mankind, we are lucky to have one human child in a century…” 

Anna’s disappointment was obvious, but she refused to give up. “There has to be some way we can work this out. Elsa deserves to be happy way more than me or Kristoff, I know he’d agree with me. We can’t just leave her all alone…” 

Meanwhile, all around them the snow was shifting as the trolls awoke to begin a new day. For the first few trolls it was slow going as they lethargically shook off the layers of snow powder on their backs and finally emerged – but once they saw Anna’s presence, the cries of joy went up and the awakening accelerated into a cascade. “The princess is here!” yelled one of the troll children excitedly, and then showers of snow shot up all over the place and the stony forms of the trolls burst into view, as the trolls who had been leisurely digging their way out all leapt out upon hearing the news. The young trolls rolled up, surrounding Anna. “Hi, Princess Anna! Your sister came by last night!” “Look over there, she stuck herself in that coffin all day. She must miss you so much already!” “Hey, where’s Kristoff?” “When are you having the wedding? We can’t wait!” “Princess Anna you’re so beautiful today! Just like always!” By now Anna was used to the boisterous cacophony of the trolls, having visited with Kristoff on many occasions, and knowing conversation was impossible she simply smiled endearingly and let the youths (most of them actually older than her, but still young by troll standards) pepper her with questions and compliments.

Soon enough the parents got their little ones quieted down, and Anna now noticed that Pabbie had slipped away in the bustle and was now on the dais in the center of the valley. “As you are all now aware, our dear Princess Anna and Queen Elsa are our guests today, but they are on official business for now. Do not worry, there shall be other opportunities for celebration, but please allow them some space for today.” After Pabbie’s announcement, most of the trolls looked back at Anna with sheepish smiles and then rolled off. Anna smiled back, letting them know she hadn’t been annoyed – it was quite difficult to be upset with such cute little creatures.

Pabbie came off the podium and approached Anna, and she rose to meet him. “Okay, can we wake up Elsa now?” she asked, a little impatiently. It occurred to her now that the snow had been steadily falling for almost the whole time.

“Perhaps it would be best if I check on her,” suggested Pabbie, “as she seems to have walked here without sled or transport, and may still be grappling with recent information. Wait here…” 

Anna stepped back while Pabbie waddled over to Elsa’s ice dome. The ice dome seemed to have fixed itself, with all the damage from Anna’s earlier whacks completely buried in an impenetrable wall of meter-long spikes. In fact, the whole thing looked just a little bigger than it had earlier in the evening…


End file.
